IBM i Manifest Americas

I just noticed a new discussion thread on Linked-In called IBM i Manifest Americas which is a discussion about how to market and promote IBM i.  I know this group is a bunch of well meaning (some not so well meaning but desperate vendors) who want to wish that IBM would invest in and sell IBM i based Power machines. 

Sadly folks just don't get it.  IBM's strategic operating system is actually LINUX.  Look at the zSeries!  IBM no longer pushes zOS, but rather pushes Linux on zSeries.  Power Systems sales folks will push Linux over IBM's own proprietary AIX flavor of UNIX!  

You can buy Linux to run on IBM xSeries (Intel based PC servers).  In other words the IBM i OS is history!  The Power machine is most definitely strategic, but not the IBM i OS nor the RPG programming language which only runs on IBM i. 

Do these 500 plus folks posting marketing ideas in this thread actually believe that they can influence IBM and change its direction and save their operating system? 

IBM's iSeries died when IBM shut down the System i brand and eliminated an entire division of IBM Server & Technology Group.  Dream on folks, but IBM i is nothing more than a way of milking the last drops of revenue from an install base that shrinks daily. 

Get real and figure a way to migrate your applications to LINUX or Microsoft Windows!  Doesn't anyone ever think about the company they work for any more?  These folks seem to be fighting to preserve their jobs and little more. 

Both Linux and Microsoft Windows are today equal or actually better than the old rebranded OS/400 now called IBM i.  Note that with the exception of modifying OS/400 to support the sale of disk technology there has been no change to the OS and no enhancements in several years.  The change that have been made are to better support virtualization on IBM disk technologies including SHARK and other SAN's.  Also to support running IBM i on Power blade servers. 

Move now -- the end is near.